Sleeping only on one side..

[Butterfly_Princess]

My cheeky monkey sleeps facing the right almost ALL of the time. The child nurse said to try rotate the way she faces so she doesnt get a flat head. No matter what we try to get her to face the left side, she wont. We have tried toys for her to look at on the left side, turning her so she is facing the door not the window, sound, but no matter what she still faces the right.

We know she can face the left, so she doesnt have a stiff neck or anything, she just prefers the right side.

Is there anything else we can try to get her to face the left? Or is it not really a problem? She hasnt got any flattness yet..and the mattress she sleeps on isnt super hard, its quite soft..so i wouldnt have thought it would give her a flat head..

Any advice would be great.

[BhoysGirl]

Hi,

I would think that 2 weeks is too soon for the flatness to start, but the MCHN is right to tell you to try to encourage her to rotate the sides that she sleeps on. And you're doing the right things by putting toys on her left side and by changing the way she faces. At 2 weeks, she probably hasn't developed a preference for any toy, but maybe if you keep an eye out for what grabs her attention the most over the next few weeks you can use this to attract her attention in bed. For what it's worth, Liam had a definite preference for his right side too, so that even though he always went to bed with his head facing up, before long he'd moved it over to the right side, but he's managed to avoid any flat spots, although this is probably just luck more than anything else.

[Doing my best]

Hi Meg,

My DD preferred her right side too, but instead of doing it for sleeping, try putting her on her left side when she is awake. Roll a cloth nappy or a small towel to put behind her back to stop her rolling back. She might also be inclined to stay that way if she can see you too.. I used to spend some time lying next to Kimmy talking to her when she was propped to the non-preferred side..

Kimmy does have a slight flat spot, but nothing that is noticable if I don't tell people about it.

HTH and enjoy all the moments while she is so young.

[~Belinda~]

Our daughter did the same thing so we put a towel under one side of her neck to force her to tilt her head to the other side, advice from our pediatrician. She still has a moderate flat head but sleeps mainly on her side so is sleeping on her ear! Our doctor said it's fine and of no concern but is monitoring it. If it gets worse, we'll go and see a physio, specifically who deals with kids, they give you exercises to do with your Bub to strengthen their muscles so they use both sides more evenly. Seriously, I wouldn't worry about it yet, there's plenty of time to correct the problem if it keeps happening. The rolled up towel worked for us anyway. HAHA, I call Madeleine our cheeky little monkey too...awesome to know someone else does! Good luck

[joss.00]

In regards to a 'flat head', my DD is 2 now and when she was a baby, we went through so many dramas in regards to the shape of her head as she too liked sleeping on her right side. We did everything religiously, putting a towel along side her to encourage her to sleep on the other side, we brought a 'wedge' to wedge her to one side etc etc etc. We went to the extreme (encouraged by our nurse) to go and see a specialist about her head as she might need a helmet. Well we did go see him and he did encourage us to get a helmet, my DD was measured, moulded and the helmet was made. We went home and were to pick it up the next day......that night my DH and talked about it and he was totally against it as my DD had to wear this helmet 23hours of the day for as long as she needed which could've been 6 - 8 months. We decided against it and what I am trying to get at is, her head is perfect now!!!!!!! Give it some time, try the excercises you can but don't stress over this as I did, it was so emotional and I wasted nearly a year of worrying over this. Their head does mould back to shape naturally without intervention.

[~Belinda~]

I agree actually, so many people make you worry these days about things!

[Mez80]

Yes we worry so much when we dont know what is going on and porfessionals are telling us all these things...i too bought various wedges, pillows for the side of dd's head, would sit in the room when i rolled her on her side (incase she rolled over onto her face!) put toys on one side of her cot (which she wasnt too interested in anyway) and i was also attending physio which funny enough was for her talipes and ended up being about her head and the strength on her neck! I decided to stop the physio as her feet were corrected and thought the physio was just inventing things. DD is fine. I did a lot of tummy time with her so she could practice strengthening her neck and as she grew and developed her head and neck are fine. If you are still concerned, the towel works fine and in some ways better then the wedges.